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County Cork Culinary Tour

Must-visit spots in Ireland’s epicurean enclave.

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Rating: 5 out of 5 by EveryTrail members

Difficulty: Easy

Duration: Multiple days

Overview :
Drive south from Shannon airport on gradually narrowing roads, where greenswards ripple toward cliffs that plunge into the Atlantic,... more » and you’ll find yourself...on the edge of the earth? No, at epicure central. Back in 1964, at her Ballymaloe House restaurant, in Cork City, Myrtle Allen proved that Irish farmhouse cooking could garner worldwide critical acclaim. Since then, Allen and her family have expanded their enterprise with a cooking school, more restaurants in Cork City, television shows, and many books—and West Cork has developed into a vibrant and tightly knit community of artisanal food producers. less «

Points of Interest

This cozy, casual room turns out Galway’s best local food, with global flourishes; house made ice creams are not to be missed.

Address:
2 Quay St., Nimmos Café
Galway
Ireland

Phone:
353-91-561-114

3. Ballyvolane House

Justin Green, the fourth generation of Greens to live at this enormous Italianate country property, runs the place with his wife, Jenny, in a comfortably homey style—a friendly cat stretched out on the bench of the grand piano, spaniels and children scampering about—but with a deluxe and vaguely bohemian air. A homemade elderflower cordial and... More vintage radios greet guests in their rooms. Take your coffee in the garden in the morning as Jeremy Green (Justin’s father) tends to the flocks of birds. Justin will even arrange a fishing trip with a guide.

Address:
off R628
Ballyvolane
Ireland

Phone:
353-25-36349Less

4. Gleesons Restaurant

Chef Robert Gleeson’s cooking is refreshingly simple and seductive, you’ll see on the menu that the smoked haddock comes from Sally Barnes, the duck in the terrine from Helena Hickey. Whereas elsewhere such farm name-checking feels pretentious, here it seems like no more than a modest tribute to these individual’s talent and hard work. It’s the... More tasty results—the best smoked fish and the most vibrant terrine—that seal the deal. Try the black pudding with fall-apart-tender braised pork belly from Avril and Willie Allshire’s free-range farm, spiced with rosemary and clove, beefy and rich.

Ideal for a family reunion, this enormous thatched-roof stone house has undergone a six-year restoration by owner Alan Callender. The former hunting estate of the earls of Bantry, the hotel sits on an island in the middle of a salmon-rich river, surrounded by gardens with monumental hydrangea mounds and 50 acres of forest.

Just south of Galway, Ireland, on a weir beside a creek that runs into Galway Bay, this 18th-century tavern-all burnished wood and thatch-was immortalized in the Seamus Heaney poem "Oysters": Our shells clacked on the platesMy tongue was a filling estuary. Moran’s feels like some family’s rowdy, boozy reunion. And its Irish Rocks are... More fabulous: the outer shells fuzzy with sea moss; the inner nacre a blinding white; the meat resembling (and even tasting like) delicately grilled eggplant. Afterward you can stroll beside the creek to the beds where the oysters were raised.

Address:
The Weir
Kilcolgan
Ireland

Phone:
353-91-796-113Less

12. O’Connor’s Seafood Restaurant

Simple, compelling preparations of fish and shellfish from local waters are owner Peter O’Brien’s calling card. Book early as reservations go fast.

Address:
The Square
Bantry
Ireland

Phone:
353-27-50221

13. Rory Conner

Rory Conner, an artisan cutler, has a studio crammed with rusty blade forms, drill presses, and grinders’ wheels, carpeted with metal dust, and looks straight out of the 19th century. The knives themselves are works of art, with handles of sustainable cocobolo and Irish bog oak, their steel blades wavy with the patterns of Damascus steel. Conner... More counts among his customers local celebs like Jeremy Irons as well as far-off food mavens: Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini owns a custom salmon slicer, and the mail-order-food impresario Ari Weinzeweig carries Conner’s cheese knives at Zingerman’s Delicastessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But Conner is most proud of the reputation his blades have earned locally—West Cork Fishermen regularly take his knives out to sea with them.

Address:
Ballylickey
Bantry
Ireland

Phone:
353-27-50032Less

14. Weir Bar

A new-age bar in the Jury Cork hotel with plate glass and sleek iron fireplaces.

Address:
Western Rd., Jury’s Cork Hotel
Cork City
Ireland

Phone:
353-21-425-2700

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